Numerous old pianos and organs are located in schools, churches, and entertainment complexes (community recreation centers, night clubs, etc.). To replace them with modern electronic musical equipment which has been provided with the flexibility of an musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) would be very expensive. Many churches, communities and school systems cannot afford expensive new electronic musical equipment and their current older equipments, while adequate for limited musical services, are not able to support visiting musical groups, for example, who must therefore bring their own musical instrumental accompaniments to maintain the "sound" achieved by that group in their home area. For example, a choral group given to accompaniment by a particular organ "sound" does not sound the same when accompanied by an older organ or piano.
The object of this invention is to provide a method and apparatus for easily and more quickly upgrading old organs and pianos at relatively low cost and provide such older organs and pianos with sensors for sensing key and pedal actuation and means to mute or prevent sound from being generated by the instrument. The sensed key and pedal activation is converted to electrical signals, digitized and formatted by conventional electronic circuitry. These signals are applied to a MIDI controller which, in turn, can control various electronic musical modules (piano, organ, guitar, violin, etc.) for a visiting choral group, for example.
According to the present invention, linear arrays of novel key actuation and expression effect break-gap-make sensor switches on a printed circuit board over key mounting bar (which has sufficient rigidity to prevent deflection thereof) positioned over, and aligned with, the keys of a vintage electronic organ or acoustic piano being rejuvenated to thereby individually sense key actuation and expression effects. By mounting the key sensor strips over or above the keys of a piano or organ, the rejuvenation process can be easily and quickly accomplished in a very economical manner. Keys on old pianos and organs often times have keys which are not level. The over key mounting bar includes adjustment means for vertical and horizontal adjustments of the bar relative to the keys. Each break-gap-make switch is individually adjustable in a vertical direction to take account of non-levelness of any note key due to wear and aging, particularly in older acoustic pianos and organs. Separate sensors are coupled to the pedals ("soft", "sustain", "sustenuto") of a piano, for example.
In the case of an acoustic piano, a muting pad and bar is positioned between the ranks of note hammers and piano strings and mutes the piano. In the case of an pipe organ, the air pump or supply is shut off, and in the case of an electronic organ, the power amplifier can be turned off by a disable signal. The muting bar can also serve as a carrier for magnetic sensors which become aligned with each string of a piano in the non-muting mode. The magnetic sensors are coupled to an amplifier/speaker system.
In a preferred embodiment, the break-gap-make switch housings are threadably mounted in the mounting bar providing a vertical vernier adjustment for each individual key.
A further object of this invention is to eliminate having three or four keyboards when the musician can incorporate his or her module, drum machine or sampler, etc. and MIDI it into a vintage organ or vintage piano.
A further advantage of the invention, is that you can have that rich "Hammond" organ sound; in addition the musician would have access to thousands of sounds such as piano, strings, bass, brass, percussion sounds, etc. The musician can also use the present invention to write songs, record and playback all from one organ or piano, and can also prepare musical sound tracks, so when he or she go to the studio all they would have to do is the vocals; this will cut studio time by at least 50%.